Birds...my fondest memories center around birds. My grandparents would have my brother and I for the weekends when my Mom worked. We were about 8 & 6 (my brother is younger). I remember catbirds being so tame they would land on my grandpa's hand and take food. There were a pair of catbirds-so tame, and so loved. All birds were welcome at their home, and bird-watching was just a part of life-we were excited over every bird we saw. So at an early age, I paired 'love' with 'bird.'
I have been anxiously watching a nesting pair of tree swallows in our yard. I watched from the day they found the nest box, and today I am waiting to see if the babies have come out. If you enlarge this picture, you will see a mouth waiting to be fed. Tree swallows are exuberant birds. They fly like they are having a blast. When the eggs were laid, the male had a white feather which he dropped in flight-watched it fall, and then swooped back to retrieve it-before the feather hit the ground. I'm sure he was so excited about the eggs-he was just playing!

I have had many heart aches over imagined catastrophes concerning this nest and the babies in it. I can see them plainly from my studio window, and have prayed for protection. Which brings me to an important lesson God showed me...I was sure they were attacked, eaten, hurt, etc. so many times. From my other experience with tree swallows being ravaged by raccoons, I have had this nest killed in my imagination, and have forgotten the God who made them, and who holds them dearly. He mentions sparrows-a most unlikely bird to watch if you are a bird-watcher-so common, very drab. Yet He has His eye on them. I guess you get the picture.

But I have woken in the middle of the night and prayed for my tree swallows, and then for my own nest.

I am watching today, because I have a suspicion the babies have left. I have been so careful-staying 50 feet away-not even weeding near the nest-just so my scent won't be detected and call in the killers.
My previous experience with tree swallows ended in my son and I taking 4 little babies to the Cornell Animal Companion Center in Ithaca (just a 30 minute drive from us), where the babies were tenderly and very competently cared for. I even got a 'letter' from the babies, thanking me for saving them, and telling me how they were! That was about 4 years ago. So this nesting is important for me. God can do easily even what we fear He can't do because of past experiences, or our own failures. Does that make sense?


The parents...

The sound of a black-billed cuckoo woke me up this morning. You can hear them at the Cornell Ornithology Lab.

But this sight really woke me up when I went outside with the geese to put them in their day time pen. First I was alerted by Sam's alarm call-which you would know right away is an alarm-especially coming from Sam. She is our 'kazoo' goose-for a good reason. So I looked where she was looking with her wide goose eyes, and saw a great blue heron in the very top of one of our cedar trees! I though he'd be gone by the time I got my camera. I talked to him, and he stayed put. I think he enjoyed the view from up there, but he was being dive-bombed by all the little birds in our yard (including the tree swallows), so finally spread his giant wings and took off.

I am thankful our son has the same feeling for birds as I do. I have sort of trained my husband to love them too. He used to have a fear of birds-not a phobia, but not a real love of them either. But now birds are somehow a topic of our talk during the day. I can't wait to tell my family about the heron!

P.S. The baby tree swallows are fledging as I write! I watched 2 of them leave the nest. Two more are just waiting for the right moment. I imagine the whole family flying in circles, catching feathers with joy...